Site License Initiatives in the United Kingdom: The PSLI and NESLI Experience

Abstract

This article examines the development of site licensing within the United Kingdom higher education community. In particular, it looks at haw the pressure to make better use of dwindling fiscal resources led to the conclusion that information technology and its exploitation was necessary in order to create an effective library service. These conclusions, reached in the Follett Report of 1993, led to the establishment of a Pilot Site License Initiative and then a National Electronic Site License Initiative. The focus of this article is these initiatives and the issues they faced, which included off-site access, definition of a site and perhaps mostimportantly, the unbundling of print and electronic journals.